well, i've finally done it

There are very few, if any, books that I've gotten a third of the way into and stopped reading.  A couple of years ago I instituted my own reading process.  I read 6 books at a time.  I split the books into thirds, start with one, read up to the bookmark, move onto the next and so on and so forth.  My thought was if I get to the end of the first third and haven't gotten interested chances are the book isn't for me.  I can't remember a time when I've gotten to that point and quit.

But I've found the book that did it to me.

clockwork prince
the infernal devices series #2
cassandra clare
ya/sci-fi/fantasy/romance
mcelderry books
published 2011

First of all, y'all know I'm a sucker for book cover art and this one, my friends, is awful.  This is one of those rare instances where due to the fact that I already read Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instrument series and the first in this series Clockwork Angel, I picked up this book.  Were it the first in the series I never would have given it a second glace.  I mean, come on!  Ugh.  It's awful.  It makes me mad just looking at it and that's before I started reading it.  A book shouldn't do that to you.

Secondly, I feel like Clare is cheating.  I feel like she's taking the success of The Mortal Instrument series (which should have ended at 3 - the fact that she wrote more to that series should speak volumes to her cheater ways) and expounding on it.  It would be like if Stephenie Meyer went and started writing books about everything that happened before Edward & Bella.  Yes, a prequel novel is nice, but an entire series?  No thanks.

And the characters all feel like washed out versions of characters we saw in the MI series.  Tessa is Clary, Will is Jace, Jem is Alec, Jessie is Isabelle.  They're just not as bright, not as interesting as their MI counterparts.  Sure she's tweaked them a bit, different hair color, different redeeming/bad qualities, whatever.  They're the same characters and they're doing the SAME THINGS.  At least, that's what it feels like to me.

So instead of wasting my time slogging through this book only to forget about it 2 seconds after writing my review I decided to stop and return it to the library and breathe a great sigh of relief.  When she's done ripping off her own work, I'll go through and read the entire series so I don't have to try to remember what happened in the last.  And if I don't think they're getting any better, well I guess I'll just ditch the series and chalk it up to a one-hit wonder, author style.

To paraphase Tiffani DeBartolo & my favorite quote of all time - there are too many mediocre things in life and books shouldn't be one of them.